MM, I to was adopted, I could not find out any information from my adopted family, although they new. when I was in my late 50s I got a researcher to find out a few things for me, I found out I had 3 brothers, the biggest mistake of my life, if I could take time back and change the out come I would. I also know that I have two sisters and two brothers, they are cousins, their farther was my farther, but these know nothing about it and they never will.
The first 3 brothers were only interested in themsleves and telling me what a hard time they had.....as if it was my fault, they did not want to know anything about me, if I tried to talk to them about me they would say that they were not interested, if they had the eldest of the 3 brothers might have found out that my adopted father was in fact his birth father. My family is like a flaming jigsaw puzzle. It use to bug me growing up about who I was, hints would be dropped but as I was only young they thought I would forget, stupid beggers.
If you do search please do it carefully and have councilling, by the SS. You can open a can of worms that you will not be able to close. {{{{hugs}}}}
If you wish to know more PM me. x

Just as a matter of interest, you can gain access to the 1911 census already. It won't be officially released until 2011 (obviously) but if you want info. from it you can specify a name and address and send over £40 to get it.
I think I'll wait.

Me too. I wouldn't know the addresses of people I need, mainly gt.grandparents.

Something else caught my eye the other day. The Family Records Centre (it used to be known as Somerset House) in Islington is closing shortly. All the huge index books will be bundled up and sent to Dorset for storage. In the meantime, all the microfiches will be sent to the National Archives at Kew, where they say, extra fiche readers will be available. Kew is about the most inaccessible place in London so it really makes sense to send these records there....NOT.
I'll stick with Ancestry .co and the multitude of places available on the web.

Me too.

I also use findmypast. Sometimes the page is missing on Ancestry or illegible and although you have to buy units it's handy to be able to check it.

I used to be a tester for 1837online (as it used to be called) and was "paid" in units so I have only ever bought £5 worth to keep them active.

Since there have been two of us researching different families, we bought an annual subscription...unlimited searching and a whole lot cheaper pro rata than buying credits.

A friend and I both shared a sub last year. Did it by one using day one night time.

I've been putting a lot of info on their tree programme so this year had my own.

Definitely worth the money.

I joined the local Family history group. They offer service that if you make a small donation to group funds they will look up anything you want using the group subscriptions. They also publish a quarterly magazine with lists of people and the families thay are researching. Saved me a lot of time and money

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Pone ubi sol non lucet!

I belonged to about three family history societies last year. Funds were a bit tight this time so I only did one that has several strong lines on.

I joined the local college family history lessons when I first started and did 4 courses. After we as a group felt we couldn't really learn more from them we decided to still meet up once a month to talk about what we were doing and see if anyone could help with suggestions etc.

That is a good idea what you mention. Never thought of that.

Mind you I have done many look ups for people anyway.

We have a christmas meal every year. Mind you they are all at least 20 years older than me. But we mainly all get on well together.

There is another more structured group that meets at a local church but I can never make that one as its afternoons.

I was adopted by my (step) father...(who sadly is not around anymore)...
I decided a few years ago to trace my real father...
Was glad I did in a way...Although when we first met it was very strange and rather cold...
But I still never got the answers I was after...As to why he left my mother when she was pregnant with me..
We still became friends...
You don't always find the answers you are looking for when looking for original parents...You should never expect to or you can feel very let down.